Snodin's choice: Liverpool vs Everton, April '87
If my lip-reading is correct Reid's invective after one foul included telling Molby he was a "fat twat". Ian Snodin's role in all this wasn't clear.
Ian Snodin had a big decision to make in January 1987. Leeds United had refused Everton's offer for him in the summer, but now Billy Bremner's side were slipping out of play-off contention in Division Two. The money on offer for their captain, a 23-year-old midfielder spoken of as a future England international, was too significant to ignore.
Leeds invited Everton to up their offer and accepted £840,000, but that attracted Liverpool's attention, and they matched it. That mean Snodin wasn't only being asked to choose between the two entrenched halves of Merseyside football, but the two most recent First Division champions and, in Liverpool, holders of the league and FA Cup double; Everton were the beaten FA Cup finalists, and both clubs had been in European finals in 1985, Liverpool tragically at Heysel, Everton triumphantly in the Cup Winners' Cup. And they were the teams, Everton in 2nd and Liverpool in 3rd, vying to overtake Arsenal at the top of the table.
Snodin didn't have to make the decision alone. Bremner had been his mentor at his first club, Doncaster Rovers, before selling him to Eddie Gray's Leeds; Bremner then inherited Snodin again from Gray, making him captain. Now they sat together in the manager's office at Elland Road, deciding what to do. Which club offered the better future? Would Howard Kendall at Everton or Kenny Dalglish at Liverpool be the better manager to nurture his England hopes? Which squad would give both the most opportunities, and the better chance of medals? Which half of Merseyside would be easiest to disappoint? And in the short term, which club could make him a First Division winner by the summer?
Two things were certain: Snodin didn't want to leave Leeds and Bremner; he departed Elland Road in tears. And the money didn't matter: Liverpool offered more, but Snodin chose Everton.
Dalglish was livid. "He's made his bed and he'll have to lie in it," he said, making overtures to Sheffield Wednesday for Ian's brother Glynn, who said he'd be delighted to join "our kid" on Merseyside. Ian said he believed he was joining the team with the better chances of dominating football for the next five years, while observers wondered how he would fit into a squad already crowded with midfielders. But influential England international Peter Reid was 31 years old and had only made a handful of appearances due to injuries, and Snodin could add some elegance to their shared combative style. He also hinted, in his first interview, that he might run faster.